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From: rdd@usa1.com (Aaron J. Dinkin)
Subject: Re: Chain Shift (was Tendency of Inflections to Disappear)
Message-ID: <rdd-2707961807230001@dmn1-13.usa1.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 18:07:23 -0500
Distribution: world
References: <4suk93$pob@carrera.intergate.bc.ca> <4t0be8$ls8@newstand.syr.edu> <4t0usc$kaa@thighmaster.admin.lsa.umich.edu> <1996Jul23.094214.1@ahecas> <4t7na2$gn1@thighmaster.admin.lsa.umich.edu> <zQmc7aAfE$9xEwim@vision25.demon.co.uk> <Pine.SUN.3.94.960725200623.15259A-100000@access5.digex.net> <COw+kDAGLR+xEw9P@vision25.demon.co.uk>
Lines: 25

In article <COw+kDAGLR+xEw9P@vision25.demon.co.uk>, Philip Hunt
<phil@vision25.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> In article <Pine.SUN.3.94.960725200623.15259A-100000@access5.digex.net>,
> Paul O Bartlett <pobart@access.digex.net> writes
> >On Thu, 25 Jul 1996, Philip Hunt wrote (excerpt):
> >
> >> Is there also a /@:/ phoneme, or do "bird" and "bud" sound the same to
> >> Americans?
> >
> >    In my idiolect of American English, "bird" and "bud" are two very
> >distinct words.  "R" is alive and well for many (not quite all)
> >Yankees.
> 
> Ah, so these would be /b@Rd/ and /b@d/? Or would "bird" be /b@:Rd/? I
> imagine that distinctions between long and short vowels in monosyllabic
> words are similar in American and British English.

American English makes no distinction between shoort and long vowels (and
if you assign your phonemes properly, neither does British English).
"Bird" is /b@rd/ phonemically (usually), [bRd] allophonically, since AmE
is rhotic; i.e., it retains /r/ after vowels.

-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

